Usually I take the pins out and put them carefully in a shallow china dish on the dresser.

This tray already has pins from previous shirts going back 10 or 12 years. It also has some hairpins, bobby pins, small buttons, a broken chain to attach to glasses, three rubber bands, and 2 cents. These items will remain for future generations to throw away. No one in the family knows what to do with them.

The inability to throw away pins may date back to that awful saying: ``See a pin, pick it up....'' And while no one throws pins away, I've seen people pick them up.

I suppose they are added to other piles of pins in other houses. Eventually it will be like the garbage surplus. We will have floating scows full of used pins with nowhere to dump them.

Another great problem I have is suitcase keys.

You can't tie a key to the suitcase handle, because then the key would make no sense. The key can't be put inside the suitcase, because after the suitcase is locked you can't get it out.